HONR209O | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/12/2018	While this course is extremely interesting and you will learn a ton, it will not help your GPA in any way. The exams are very difficult to do well on, even with hours of studying. Dr. Yager is not a gentle grader. The tests are all free response, so you have to know the content like the back of your hand, and mind you, the content is based on detailed neurobiology. If you're not into biology, I would steer clear. To succeed in this course, you have to attend every lecture, take precise notes on everything Dr. Yager says (his powerpoints are absolutely barebones), and complete every assignment with 100% effort. There is absolutely no room for slack in this class. Not the honors seminar for you if you want an easy A. That being said, it is a super interesting course, and it is possible to get a good grade if you are on it from the beginning. Dr. Yager is brilliantly smart and presents the content in an engaging way. Definitely a challenging course, but overall I like it.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting an A Amandafaw 03/26/2012	Dr. Yager is fantastic! This was my favorite honors seminar out of all 5 that I took. It was insanely interesting. It really does change the way you think about sleeping. Yager does a really great job teaching it - he's very relaxed and doesn't bullshit you. He also brought in a real brain for us to look at! Overall I really really loved this class. We had to do one paper about a book but he let us hand it in early if we wanted and he reviewed it for us and gave it back so we could definitely get an A. Dr. Yager is funny, blatantly intelligent, and very sincere. I highly recommend this seminar if you are even remotely interested in the brain or psychology.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting an A David Yang 01/21/2012	Dr. Yager is a great professor, both knowledgeable and engaging. If the class is talkative, then the lectures become very enjoyable to attend. Take this class at your own risk however, for it is very hard to get an A, not so much because the material itself is hard, but because his grading is rather tough. If you dont have exactly what he wants you will lose points...a lot of points. And make sure take good notes and attend every lecture. You can read the light blue book to get a general understanding, but know that whatever extra information you grab from this book will not be worth a thing if you write it as part of an answer on his tests...unless you get it wrong.. then it will cost you points. What Ive learned in this class is just phenomenal and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the importance of sleep with many aspects of college life. I have to say.. unlike some other classes.. ex. orgo, calcIII... this class is actually interesting. PS... best thing to do is to just go listen in... learn the stuff... and not fret about getting an unsatisfactory grade.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a C dreamparticles 12/17/2011	Basically, if you want an easy A, if you're a non-science major, or if you need an honors seminar, I don't recommend taking this class. Typically honors seminars are supposed to kind of be an easy A; not this one. You have to take copious amounts of notes, study hard, and have an intuition for science to get a decent grade. The lectures are fine, a little boring, but the videos and information are interesting enough. Just make sure you take a ton of notes because that's your main study tool. The tests are difficult. They consist of 5-7 questions based on broad topics discussed and repeated in class, but then you have to apply a bunch of details and connect it all to get points on the answers. You definitely need to study for them. There's also the ten page paper which, if you're a good writer and can look past the surface meaning of the book, should be fairly easy to write. The in-class discussions for the weekly papers can be painful. There seemed to be the same 4-5 students talking each week. Conversation is difficult to stimulate because sometimes it seems like no one wants to talk. Overall, this class was difficult, especially for an honors seminar. If you're a science major and are interested in this subject matter, it'll probably be a lot easier for you than it was for me.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/15/2010	Professor Yager is very knowledgable and very passionate, but he tends to be a bit boring in his lectures (I dozed off in his class every time except for once). The exams are pretty challenging, but they're fair if you study. Take notes on everything he says, because that's what's tested. And READ THE BOOKS (especially the blue one). I didn't read the books all year, and my friend pointed that there were helpful bullet lists and things like that. Bottom line: Interesting material, very interesting if you're a psych or bio major. Involves a lot for critical thinking. If you're looking for an easy A, look elsewhere. Recommended with caution.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a B Anonymous 01/25/2010	Very interesting class. The material gets better for the last 2/3 of the class. Presentations are difficult to get an A. Exams are not bad but need good notes. As for the essay, he accepts drafts for review, so make good use of that opportunity. Overall, a lot of work, but if you're interested, take the class!
David Yager HONR209O Anonymous 11/30/2009	the professor is a nice enough guy and knowledgable (except for the astonishing amount that he seems not to know things in the field of sleep... which he probably should?) and the class is interesting but definitly an annoyance because of the note taking and the epic paper. it is true if youre not going to be a neuroscientist or whatever and youre looking for an easy A... DONT DO IT.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2009	Well don't that just say it all.
David Yager HONR209O Expecting a B samiam762 12/20/2008	Warning: If you're an honors student looking for an easy, interesting honors seminar, just stop reading now and go take the multiverse one, or multiple me's. This class was, overall, an interesting class. Sleep was always something interesting to me (both from a scientific standpoint and from an experiential one), and I greatly looked forward to to the class. I soon found out, though, that though the information was definitely interesting, the class was going to be a lot harder than I'd thought. First off, my main gripe is that the class is almost completely-discussion based - he spends every class going over information in his slides, trying to get people involved, but then gives absolutely zero percentage of your grade from participation. Your grade will consist of 40% two midterms, 30% the final, 20% two scientific paper presentations, and 10% a 10-page paper. So first off, the tests. Make sure you take good notes, because if you don't you'll basically be screwed for the midterms, because he'll ask you specific things from the lecture, like 'list all the ways sleep inertia is bad to society' and if you don't list everything, you're screwed. On the tests, make sure you answer everything in bullet format, because it's the fastest, easiest way to answer, and it's what he wants anyway (even if he doesn't specifically tell you). If you answer a question, no matter how much you've written, as long as you write the specific things he's looking for, you get full credit. No matter how much you BS an answer, if you don't include the specific answers he wants, it won't matter. The final was similar format to the tests, you just have a lot more time to do it. Also, he included some extra credit on the final just to boost your grade, but even then, be prepared for B's and C's on the tests, or if you're 'that guy' maybe a low A. For the paper presentations: every week a different group gives a presentation on a scientific paper that he posts online, and everyone will have to do two of these. For this, what he's looking for is basically that you spend 5 minutes max explaining the paper and its outcomes and everything, and that for the next 10-15 minutes the class will be engaged in good discussion on it, thanks to your amazing leadership abilities you are expected to have. Make sure you have friends in the class who you have convinced ahead of time to get involved in the discussion, and whatever you do, don't say anything to try to get the discussion going unless you absolutely have to. If you do that well, you can expect an easy A for that 20%, but if not be ready for B's and B-'s. As for the paper, it's actually 8-10 pages, on one of the books you'll be assigned. There's absolutely no research necessary, and the book it's on is actually a (pretty interesting) novel about this sleep clinic, so you'll basically be writing a literary analysis on it. Do with this what you can, and though you'll have a lot of time to do it, don't push it off or you'll feel the consequences. Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the class (though the lecture style did start to get old), and did learn a lot about an interesting subject I hadn't actually known much about, but I do wish the class had had some sort of a participation grade, because otherwise no one has incentive to participate, and it's the same 3 people taking over and over.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
11/12/2018

While this course is extremely interesting and you will learn a ton, it will not help your GPA in any way. The exams are very difficult to do well on, even with hours of studying. Dr. Yager is not a gentle grader. The tests are all free response, so you have to know the content like the back of your hand, and mind you, the content is based on detailed neurobiology. If you're not into biology, I would steer clear. To succeed in this course, you have to attend every lecture, take precise notes on everything Dr. Yager says (his powerpoints are absolutely barebones), and complete every assignment with 100% effort. There is absolutely no room for slack in this class. Not the honors seminar for you if you want an easy A. That being said, it is a super interesting course, and it is possible to get a good grade if you are on it from the beginning. Dr. Yager is brilliantly smart and presents the content in an engaging way. Definitely a challenging course, but overall I like it.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting an A
Amandafaw
03/26/2012

Dr. Yager is fantastic! This was my favorite honors seminar out of all 5 that I took. It was insanely interesting. It really does change the way you think about sleeping. Yager does a really great job teaching it - he's very relaxed and doesn't bullshit you. He also brought in a real brain for us to look at! Overall I really really loved this class. We had to do one paper about a book but he let us hand it in early if we wanted and he reviewed it for us and gave it back so we could definitely get an A. Dr. Yager is funny, blatantly intelligent, and very sincere. I highly recommend this seminar if you are even remotely interested in the brain or psychology.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting an A
David Yang
01/21/2012

Dr. Yager is a great professor, both knowledgeable and engaging. If the class is talkative, then the lectures become very enjoyable to attend. Take this class at your own risk however, for it is very hard to get an A, not so much because the material itself is hard, but because his grading is rather tough. If you dont have exactly what he wants you will lose points...a lot of points. And make sure take good notes and attend every lecture. You can read the light blue book to get a general understanding, but know that whatever extra information you grab from this book will not be worth a thing if you write it as part of an answer on his tests...unless you get it wrong.. then it will cost you points. What Ive learned in this class is just phenomenal and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the importance of sleep with many aspects of college life. I have to say.. unlike some other classes.. ex. orgo, calcIII... this class is actually interesting. PS... best thing to do is to just go listen in... learn the stuff... and not fret about getting an unsatisfactory grade.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a C
dreamparticles
12/17/2011

Basically, if you want an easy A, if you're a non-science major, or if you need an honors seminar, I don't recommend taking this class. Typically honors seminars are supposed to kind of be an easy A; not this one. You have to take copious amounts of notes, study hard, and have an intuition for science to get a decent grade. The lectures are fine, a little boring, but the videos and information are interesting enough. Just make sure you take a ton of notes because that's your main study tool. The tests are difficult. They consist of 5-7 questions based on broad topics discussed and repeated in class, but then you have to apply a bunch of details and connect it all to get points on the answers. You definitely need to study for them. There's also the ten page paper which, if you're a good writer and can look past the surface meaning of the book, should be fairly easy to write. The in-class discussions for the weekly papers can be painful. There seemed to be the same 4-5 students talking each week. Conversation is difficult to stimulate because sometimes it seems like no one wants to talk. Overall, this class was difficult, especially for an honors seminar. If you're a science major and are interested in this subject matter, it'll probably be a lot easier for you than it was for me.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/15/2010

Professor Yager is very knowledgable and very passionate, but he tends to be a bit boring in his lectures (I dozed off in his class every time except for once). The exams are pretty challenging, but they're fair if you study. Take notes on everything he says, because that's what's tested. And READ THE BOOKS (especially the blue one). I didn't read the books all year, and my friend pointed that there were helpful bullet lists and things like that. Bottom line: Interesting material, very interesting if you're a psych or bio major. Involves a lot for critical thinking. If you're looking for an easy A, look elsewhere. Recommended with caution.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/25/2010

Very interesting class. The material gets better for the last 2/3 of the class. Presentations are difficult to get an A. Exams are not bad but need good notes. As for the essay, he accepts drafts for review, so make good use of that opportunity. Overall, a lot of work, but if you're interested, take the class!

David Yager
HONR209O

Anonymous
11/30/2009

the professor is a nice enough guy and knowledgable (except for the astonishing amount that he seems not to know things in the field of sleep... which he probably should?) and the class is interesting but definitly an annoyance because of the note taking and the epic paper. it is true if youre not going to be a neuroscientist or whatever and youre looking for an easy A... DONT DO IT.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/12/2009

Well don't that just say it all.

David Yager
HONR209O

Expecting a B
samiam762
12/20/2008

Warning: If you're an honors student looking for an easy, interesting honors seminar, just stop reading now and go take the multiverse one, or multiple me's. This class was, overall, an interesting class. Sleep was always something interesting to me (both from a scientific standpoint and from an experiential one), and I greatly looked forward to to the class. I soon found out, though, that though the information was definitely interesting, the class was going to be a lot harder than I'd thought. First off, my main gripe is that the class is almost completely-discussion based - he spends every class going over information in his slides, trying to get people involved, but then gives absolutely zero percentage of your grade from participation. Your grade will consist of 40% two midterms, 30% the final, 20% two scientific paper presentations, and 10% a 10-page paper. So first off, the tests. Make sure you take good notes, because if you don't you'll basically be screwed for the midterms, because he'll ask you specific things from the lecture, like 'list all the ways sleep inertia is bad to society' and if you don't list everything, you're screwed. On the tests, make sure you answer everything in bullet format, because it's the fastest, easiest way to answer, and it's what he wants anyway (even if he doesn't specifically tell you). If you answer a question, no matter how much you've written, as long as you write the specific things he's looking for, you get full credit. No matter how much you BS an answer, if you don't include the specific answers he wants, it won't matter. The final was similar format to the tests, you just have a lot more time to do it. Also, he included some extra credit on the final just to boost your grade, but even then, be prepared for B's and C's on the tests, or if you're 'that guy' maybe a low A. For the paper presentations: every week a different group gives a presentation on a scientific paper that he posts online, and everyone will have to do two of these. For this, what he's looking for is basically that you spend 5 minutes max explaining the paper and its outcomes and everything, and that for the next 10-15 minutes the class will be engaged in good discussion on it, thanks to your amazing leadership abilities you are expected to have. Make sure you have friends in the class who you have convinced ahead of time to get involved in the discussion, and whatever you do, don't say anything to try to get the discussion going unless you absolutely have to. If you do that well, you can expect an easy A for that 20%, but if not be ready for B's and B-'s. As for the paper, it's actually 8-10 pages, on one of the books you'll be assigned. There's absolutely no research necessary, and the book it's on is actually a (pretty interesting) novel about this sleep clinic, so you'll basically be writing a literary analysis on it. Do with this what you can, and though you'll have a lot of time to do it, don't push it off or you'll feel the consequences. Overall, I'd say I enjoyed the class (though the lecture style did start to get old), and did learn a lot about an interesting subject I hadn't actually known much about, but I do wish the class had had some sort of a participation grade, because otherwise no one has incentive to participate, and it's the same 3 people taking over and over.

Reviews for HONR209O